Whitewater Victim 4

Victim No. 4. Vincent Foster, who was Clinton's counsel for Whitewater, was the highest government official to meet an untimely death since the Kennedys. 

He could have killed himself on July 20, 1993, as Clinton's first "independent" counsel claimed. But it's rather doubtful. The story line concocted by the counsel has about 20 major holes in it. A few examples:

* Vince went out and hired two lawyers on July 19. As Clinton's man in charge of covering up Whitewater, he had failed badly and could see everything was about to unravel (which it began to do in Arkansas the very next day). Question: Why pay for a lawyer to launch a defense and then shoot yourself a day later? The independent counsel ignored this. 

* After a somewhat hurried lunch in his office July 20, Vince grabbed his jacket and left the White House with the words, "I'll be back." And then we are supposed to believe, apparently, that he picked up a White House beeper, drove to his Georgetown townhouse, got a gun, drove to a lonely park in Arlington, walked 200 yards to a steep slope, went down into some thick bushes, sat down, shot himself and then threw his glasses 13 feet away through heavy brush, and wound up lying down supine and perfectly straight, legs together, with arms straight down at his side, the gun still in his hand, and trickles of blood running from his mouth in several directions, including uphill. What's wrong with this picture? 

* Where's the bullet? None was ever found even after a massive search and excavation. Could it be that the police and FBI looked in the wrong place? Sgt. George Gonzalez (the first paramedic on the scene) and his boss both insisted they found Foster 200 feet from the official spot. If they're right, then why was the body moved? 

* Where are Vince's fingerprints on the gun? All the prints are someone else's! 

* Where are the skull fragments? None were ever found. Normally, a .38 will blow out a 4" to 5" hole, with blood and brains everywhere. Because of the mess and the noise, most sophisticated hit men today repack their cartridges with a half charge. This explains the tiny, one-inch hole in the back of Vince's head. The counsel skipped this, too. 

* How could the soles of Foster's shoes have remained absolutely clean? That time of year, the soil in Fort Marcy Park, where his body was dumped, is the stickiest, gummiest you've ever seen. Ten steps, and your soles are covered with dirt sparkling with flecks of mica. 

* Who is the mystery blonde whose hairs were found on Vince? And why did the counsel not mention that carpet fibers and semen were found on his shorts? In this age of detective movies, how could anyone think such clues unworthy of mention in a serious report? 

* The "suicide note" now has proven to be bogus! In a painstaking, three-month study by Strategic Investment, a panel of the three most respected forensic handwriting experts in the world unanimously determined the note to be a forgery. The bright yellow note, torn into 27 pieces (without leaving one single fingerprint-try that!), suddenly appeared in Vince's briefcase after an absence of six days. During that time, the police and FBI had inspected the briefcase and found it to be empty. 

* Today, thanks to the drug trade, hit men have polished the "staged suicide" to an exact science. If any sign of a struggle remains, the killer has failed his task. The trick is to persuade the victim he'll be OK if he cooperates-and then shoot suddenly. In the vile jargon of the professional assassins I've had the misfortune of meeting, "Ya gotta butter up a turkey before ya roast 'im." To my utter amazement, neither the independent counsel nor the Senate investigators knew anything about how hit men work today. 

* Seven top U.S. forensic experts have gone on record as saying that the pattern of powder burns on Foster's index fingers is "not consistent with suicide." 

* I could go on and on and on. The counsel quoted reports, even an anonymous one, from visitors to the park that day. But some witnesses also saw "a menacing-looking Hispanic man" by a white van with its big door open near Vince's car just before the body was found. The counsel left that out.

* Instead of allowing Vince's office to be sealed after his death, top Clinton staffers Bernie Nussbaun, Patsy Thomasson, and Maggie Williams frantically rifled it for "national security matters" (readincriminating Whitewater documents) and cart them off to Hillary's closet upstairs. In a stunning show of chutzpah, they even made the park polic and FBI agents sit in the hallway for two hours while they did it. And Nussbaum later claimed it was only ten minutes! (An FBI agent disclosed to me that file was opened for obstruction of justice, but Bill had it closed.) 

Why would anybody want a nice, gentle fellow like Vince Foster killed and his body dumped in a park? For some excellent reasons, which I detail in my book, The Presidential Mess: An Emergency Guidebook for Investors. Believe me, it's a stunning story, and I'd like to give you a complimentary copy.

But the #1 reason is that Vince knew far too much and he had to go because he was about to crack, and that would have ended the Clinton presidency right there and then.

Suppose, however, it was suicide. Suppose Whitewater was becoming such a horror that suicide seemed better than facing the music. What then? 

Then the only logical explanation is scenario #2 which still puts Clinton in a very bad light: 

* Vince's Whitewater coverup was coming apart. Facts were popping up in the press and people were talking. For instance, Clinton's partner in Whitewater, Jim McDougal, had gone to Little Rock attorney and 1990 Republican gubernatorial candidate, Sheffield Nelson and made a taped statement which I have heard, saying: 

"I could sink it [the coverup] quicker than they could lie about it if I could get in a position so I wouldn't have my head beaten off. And Bill knows that." 

So sensitive was Vince to criticism that he was still bothered about the heat he was getting for his role in Travelgate. In fact, the independent counsel states that those close to Vince thought that "the single greatest source of his distress was the criticism he received following the firing of seven employees from the White House Travel Office." Little did they know the whole story. Vince had to keep Whitewater detail, bottled up inside, even at home. 

* On the day Vince "shot himself", he received a shocking phone call from an attorney at Arkansas Rose Law Firm saying that FBI Director William Sessions was about to subpoena the documents of Judge David Hale. Hale was a Clinton appointee who charged that Clinton forced him to give fraudulent SBA loans of millions of dollars to Clinton's friends. In the Senate hearings, Clinton's people denied such a call took place, but I know for a definite fact it did. And I'm backed up by the Rose phone billings and Vince's phone log. Also, Sen. Christopher Bond (R.-Mo.) later confirmed that the call was from "an old friend" at Rose. 

* About this time, Clinton fired his FBI Director, a step so desperate that no President had ever taken it. Vince realized that the genie was out of the bottle. He had confided to his brother-in-law, former congressman Beryl Anthony, that he was very worried that Congress itself was about to launch a criminal probe into his affairs. (In this scenario, the "suicide note" was actually the "opening argument for his defense" before Congress- a defense which Vince told his wife he wrote on July 11) 

* He was sure that in such a probe, the easy-going David Hale would spill the beans and drag in Gov. Tucker, Steve Smith, Madison Marketing, Castle Grande, Whitewater, Vince himself, and inevitably, Bill Clinton. He mentally added up the fines and prison terms he would face for concealing Bill's crimes, many of which he had taken a supporting role in. The totals were horrendous. And the thought of being a central figure in America's first presidential impeachment was too much for his quiet mind to bear. He told his wife and sister that he was thinking of resigning. (But he still couldn't let on about the Whitewater crisis.) 

NOTE: In recent days, you've seen Foster's fears come true with the conviction of Tucker and the McDougals. Now, Clinton is in the extremely awkward position of claiming, "Well, my partners in Whitewater Development are all convicted felons, but I'm pure as the driven snow." 

WHITEWATER CAN NO LONGER BE CALLED A REPUBLICAN VENDETTA; IT'S A FACT OF HISTORY, AS I'VE KNOWN SINCE 1983.

In addition, Hillary has been proven to have done the billing on Campobello (see below) and written lots of checks for other Whitewater ventures, which makes her guilty of perjury because she denied any involvement. And from my own data, I'm convinced that they also have her on bank fraud, campaign fraud, mailfraud, and wirefraud. 

* Vince was cracking up. Everyone around him agreed he looked and sounded terrible. The Desyrel prescribed by his doctor didn't help. So when the call came about Hale's subpoena, he had to go home and think things over. But there, alas, he could think of no way out. So he put two bullets in his revolver, drove across the Potomac to the first quiet spot he found, hid himself in some bushes where he could pray in solitude, and pulled the trigger. 

There. That sums up the most probable suicide scenario. Unfortunately for Clinton, it's very nearly as damning as the murder scenario. 

Today everyone-from Vince's family to the press to the White House -professes to be baffled by his death. "How on earth," they wonder, "could such a typical Washington flap as Travelgate cause Vince to be so depressed?" 

Under either scenario, the plain answer is: It didn't. The thousand Whitewater crimes did. 

Victims No. 5 & 6. Then you have the small-plane crashes, which are fairly easy events to stage. Hit men commonly use any of five quick, simple techniques. 

One method was used on the first two victims, C. Victor Raiser II, the former finance co-chairman of Clinton's presidential campaign, and his son, Montgomery. Their plane crashed in good weather near Anchorage, Alaska, on July 30, 1992. I respected Raiser as a man of integrity, but he was caught up in a lot of the shenanigans of the campaign-though he didn't like them. Eventually, he soured on Clinton and thus became a potential major leak and a big threat to Bill's presidency.